Mar
5th
2018
Points of Canon: S5x15 - Rarity Investigates! · 4:19pm Mar 5th, 2018
Rarity Instigates! Really, imagine Rarity instigating a riot.
- Chronology markers: Friendship Castle never appears, neither do the CMC cutie marks. Absence of Starlight does not form an upper bound on the episode, because even Twilight doesn’t appear. Canterlot Carousel boutique already exists, and the management conflict between Rarity and Sassy Saddles clearly had been resolved – the Princess Dress is nowhere to be seen – requiring the events of Canterlot Boutique to complete. Rainbow Dash is already on Wonderbolt Reserves, requiring Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 to complete, but is not yet a fully-fledged Wonderbolt, requiring Newbie Dash to happen afterwards. The season of this episode is fixed to spring.
“Oh, I modeled them after the adventures of Shadow Spade. Her stories are always full of mystery and suspense and, best of all… fabulous costumes!”
- Noir detective story is a genre ponies are intimately familiar with. Whether it is in any way historical for them or not is another matter, though.
- “Shadow Spade” is some manner of a media series – not necessarily a book, and the black and white aesthetic implies early movies – and Rarity likes it.
- Rainbow mysteriously manages to upend every ponyquin in the boutique just by opening the door. Repeatedly. That takes some doing.
- “I’m here for Princess Celestia’s royal garden opening tomorrow.” Royal Garden Opening is a yearly event, isn’t it?
- “Rumor has it the gardens are especially lush this season.” Unless the gardens open multiple times per year, that would mean that this episode dates itself to a late spring or early summer. Later, Rainbow explicitly fixes the season of this episode to spring by saying “Ice irises are almost impossible to find in spring!”
- “Speaking of the dinner, you’re still coming, right?” I wonder, does this imply Rarity gets to be Rainbow’s +1? Later, Rarity even says, “Thanks for inviting me.” <insert clopfic>
- “Ooh, the rhinestones I ordered!” This particular mailpony uniform is not unique, it turns up again. However, it’s nothing like the uniform seen on other Canterlot mail ponies either. Strangely, the orders all have a postal stamp on them, but the mail pony can redo Rarity’s order – which shouldn’t be possible unless the postal service is involved with ordering by itself, instead of just being the middleman as usual.
- “I ordered dragon-cut stones, and these are hoof-polished.” Rarity can tell, sure. But what does it mean for a stone to be “dragon-cut?”
- “Well, for you, Rarity, I’ll see what I can do.” I wonder if this implies that they met before, or Rarity is just this famous by now.
- Dinner. Among the food on the table is a strange item consisting of little cubes on toothpicks. How exactly are ponies meant to be eating it anyway?…
“Yeah, Juniper Phoenix is one of my favorite stallion colognes.”
- Stallions at least occasionally wear colognes. Not a given.
- “Juniper Phoenix” is a brand name of one.
- Wind Rider has a favorite cologne.
- “He holds the Wonderbolt record in the Mustang Marathon!” Mustang Marathon is some kind of aerial competition, but we never find out what it is in detail. According to Rainbow’s “I’m fast, but I don’t have the endurance to go long distances” it’s an endurance race. Notice that there’s a “Wonderbolt record” which Rainbow would be ineligible for if she were not a Wonderbolt nor a reservist – which is the core plot point of the episode – but wouldn’t she be eligible to compete if she were a civilian? If she were, Wind Rider’s motivation would disappear, which suggests it’s not a competition open to the general public.
- “I can’t believe I just met Wind Rider!” …Spitfire’s face as she’s watching Rainbow say that.
- “Yeah, he’s coming out of retirement to take the spot of honor in the center of our aerial flower formation tomorrow.” Random tidbit: In our world, fighter pilots typically get to retire earlier than most other professions, when they are otherwise still in prime health. Demands on reaction speed are just that high for them. Also notice that Wind Rider still has “Wonderbolt status” separately even though he is retired.
- Wind Rider is caught kissing Celestia’s hoof. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone else do that, have we?
- “Uh, no-no, it’s almost impossible to get stains out of silk.” Short of dry cleaning, which I’m pretty sure ponies should have, but obviously, not an option during the party. Notice that Rarity brought a trunk big enough to hide in and handles it with her magic pretty effortlessly.
- In one of the rare cases, we see ponies in Royal Guard armor which are not the usual white or dirty brown color. Later in the episode, a third one appears, and he is a bright green. Yep, I’m pretty sure that it had been a regulation coat dye once, a practice that was abandoned sometime after Shining Armor became captain.
- “See you tomorrow, Rarity!” So, the Wonderbolts get to stay in the “east tower” which has “the best view of Canterlot,” but Rarity doesn’t. I wonder, does she have a Canterlot apartment by now? If not, where exactly does she go to sleep?
- At the Wonderbolt Derby stadium previously observed in Sweet and Elite, outside the VIP section, Rarity is applying sunscreen. Presumably, she does not wish to get any more bleached out than she already is, or would like to get bleached out evenly.
- “I’m gonna get to fly with Wind Rider and the Wonderbolts, ’cause I’m the bestest and I’m awesome and they know it!” The moves Rainbow is displaying at the time are blatantly impossible unless pegasi fly by magic in the first place.
- Eventually Rarity ends up in the VIP section. With Minuette and Berry Punch. So which Wonderbolt is Minuette friend or family to?
- “Well, Spitfire got a note from you saying you weren’t feeling well, and she went home to take care of you.” The stranger thing is that Spitfire went home, but her mother has obviously not been anywhere as far as the home is required to be to explain Spitfire’s continued absence.
- “Stormy Flare? Aren’t you supposed to be sick?” Spitfire’s mother’s name is Stormy Flare. Notice absence of shared name components, even though they do appear to follow some manner of fire theme.
- Soarin sends Misty Fly and Blaze to Stormy Flare’s house – fully expecting them to get back before the show starts. Spitfire got the message and departed around midnight. Yesterday at the party, they said that the show starts “tomorrow,” so it has to be “today.” That means that Stormy Flare’s house is no more than about six hours of flight away. Shouldn’t Spitfire be back by now? Or rather, shouldn’t Soarin have realized that she had to be back already and become a lot more worried than he is?
- “Obviously, I am channeling Shadow Spade through these gorgeous garments, and she would say that the best way to prove that you didn’t send the letter is to find out whoever did.” Ponies have the concept of channeling, known widely enough for Rarity to use the word figuratively. Not a given!
- Full stop. In Spitfire’s room on the desk we see a fountain pen in a holder. There is pretty much nothing else it can be.
- “The damask pattern on these curtains is exquisite!” So how exactly did ponies come by damask weave – particularly, the word itself? Saddle Arabia, probably.
- “Just that there are only two rooms in the northwest wing: yours and Spitfire’s.” Wait. Aren’t Spitfire and/or Rainbow staying in the east tower?! How did that become the northwest wing so suddenly?
- “I’ve counted all three hundred and forty five bolts in the ceiling tiles two hundred and ninety three times!” Ceiling tiles are attached by means of bolts in that hallway. Good to know. Also, just how many tiles is this? 345 is not divisible by 4.
- “Except for last night when somepony was nice enough to leave a cake for us. So we did take one little break when we ate that cake.” Lucky it wasn’t poisoned then, aren’t they?
- “Cinnamon Chai’s Tea and Cake Shop” is a place. Notice, by the way, the Sherlock and Watson ponies in the background. I wonder why Sherlock gets a bee cutie mark though. Notice also the use of pillows with the outdoor tables, rather than chairs of any kind.
- “Whoever ordered the cake got a chocolate stain on her ivory scarf, and I couldn’t help but notice that Wind Rider’s scarf is tied in a tight Windsor knot instead of its usual loose slipknot!” Wait. Where’s Windsor?
- “I told her I had Pegasitis, and the only cure is the ice iris in the Crystal Mountains.” Surprisingly, the jury is out on whether Pegasitis is a real illness: You’d think a more commonly available medication would exist if it was.
- According to Soarin, Crystal Mountains – that is, the mountain range where the Crystal Empire is – are too far for any pegasus to reach and return in time for the garden opening. Unfortunately that does not give us any good distance gauge, because Rainbow chases after Spitfire, and apparently, intercepts her before she has arrived to the Crystal Mountains, since they don’t bring an ice iris back. In any case, Rainbow manages to catch up to Spitfire, who has left at least 12 hours ago, and they both return in time for the show – indicating that she can fly magnitudes faster. Notice that when they return, Spitfire is worn out and sweating, but Rainbow is neither.
- “For attempting to frame Rainbow Dash, I hereby strip you of your Wonderbolts status!” Spitfire can do this and doesn’t have to ask anyone.
Some thoughts
- Why aren’t fountain pens more popular? Are they a new thing?
- What’s that bit with the northwest tower mysteriously migrating to the east wing?!
- Who succeeded Shining Armor that permits the guards such blatant breaches of duty?…
- So is Wind Rider related to Lightning Dust? Inquiring minds want to know.
Wonderbolts are jerks, but we all know that by now. 
Five bolts per tile? Four in corners and one in center of tile?
4810550
Why not four bolts per tile, with a washer over the bolt so that each bolt holds down the corners of four tiles?
Cot in her office at Canterlot Boutique? Which presumes that she has some place to shower and primp...
There was an American-contemporary Sherlock Holmes TV series on the air at this time called Elementary which made Sherlock an apiary enthusiast. In a Manhattan brownstone, the rather disgusting nature of this being made a comedic plot-point. Although I guess most fans care more about the British contemporary-Sherlock series running at the same time?
Clearly, a Doylist scripting error.
4810553
Some of the tiles are missing a corner bolt, but are being held in place by the other three bolts, as they do.
4810553
If tile are big and heavy sometimes four bolts not enough - tile could break at corners. So another bolt in the center take some strains from corner ones?
Oh, and anyone beside Spike, Twilight and foals in school ever write anything in the show?
Because if you bite through the ink tank it is a very bad day?
4810555
The ponies clearly resemble that one rather than any other Sherlock and Watson.
Strange, because otherwise the script is full of the murder-mystery details that later check out – starting with Rarity sniffing the envelope the moment she picks it up, and then calling Wind Rider out on his cologne.
4810558
The entirety of Mane 6 are shown writing at one point or another, mostly in the Friendship Journal. Non-unicorns typically use a pencil though.
4810577
Good idea!
4810577
Kris Overstreet has given that particular phrase such connotations, that my first response to this is, 'ink is poisonous to ponies?'
4810581
If you dwell in Canterlot's high society, it may as well be.
Rarity in Sweet and Elite, and AJ great-grandfather in Family Appreciation Day.
The Sherlock Holmes pony probably gets a bee for a cutie mark because when Holmes retired, he moved to the country to raise and study bees.
4810580
I just thought that maybe this quill usage just something that Twilight... inherited?... from Celestia who is just like quills? But then I remember that Ponyville has a specialized shop for quills. Well, for quills and sofas.
Rarity in Sweet and Elite.
Isn't pegasus flight blatantly impossible unless pegasi fly by magic in the first place anyway, with those wings?
4810618
It is, but I’ve recently seen someone calculating the mass of a pegasus at about 3kg by assuming it is possible, so I couldn’t help but point this out.
4810577 Also, ponies have a large natural supply of quills, and probably all sorts of traditions about whose quill you pick to write with.
Even a larger question - who's Berry Punch friend or family to?
4810656
Minuette, probably.
4810632
Isn't we see her broke doors and see her hammer wooden pillar with her bare hooves? I'm pretty sure that it would impossible with such tiny mass.
4810697
Well, you know my opinion, and that one wasn’t. But if I must spell it out:
This is, of course, an interpretational policy, most (but not all!) of its elements have little behind it beyond my decision that it has to be so. But as long as it’s consistent, and as long as the rest of the world can be brought in agreement with it, it’s useful for writing, which is what was the point of the whole exercise: Getting a consistent and detailed model of the world interpreting pony in a realistic style.
This explicitly forbids me from calculating how much Rainbow Dash weighs exactly: I am assuming that the data required for me to do so cannot be obtained with any precision. But for me, assuming that she’s probably somewhere between 50 and 80kg is sufficiently good.
4810715
I'm also always assumed that ponies roughly human-sized so this rather low calculated pegasi mass surprise me.
And I think that I see this calculation from some dude in "HiE" group. As far as I remember his calculations often use lots of assumption. He somehow able to calculate a precise size of pony planet, distance to Celestia sun, length of the "moon" and so on.
What's odd is that noir comes from very specific circumstances, the Great Depression, Prohibition and organized crime, corrupt police, etc.
OOOOOOH! What if Shadow Spade is story about a pony detective in Griffonstone? Or Kludgetown.
Which is exactly what Muffins does in S5 with Cranky's wedding invitations. I suspect the post service is a co-op of local postal business centers, like Mailboxes Etc before UPS bought them.
I suspect it means we found an export industry for dragons that can explain how they are paying outsiders to build them their fancy custom armor.
It's probably not quite as big a deal with the Wonderbolts, since if they crash they aren't going to do it with several tons of metal and jet fuel.
Given the nature and use-patterns of pony clothing, dry cleaning seems like the default option.
Possibly a room over her new boutique. I mean, otherwise where would she have slept while making all those dresses?
Misty Fly as a cousin seems most likely, based on looks. Berry Punch probably just wandered into the VIP section drunk and security hasn't spotted her yet.
That's interesting. Of course. Pinkie Pie's sideline job being a fortune teller back in S1 had a ton of seance-specific props as well.
Does the concept of poison even exist in Equestria? I mean, baked bads sure, but the idea of deliberately sullying food?
In Equestria, Pathologists are the only people city founders get to make fun of for their terrible naming skills.
Aren't the Crystal Mountains where Soarin went to that one time in the comics?
Especially a retired Wonderbolt, so I guess she's doing it after the fact.
It's worth noting that once the naturally white-coated Guard Captain left, Royal Guards can stop dyeing themselves white.
It's worth pointing out that until the very end, every single Wonderbolt present idolized the heck out of Windrider. It seems highly implausible that this is the first time in his life he's done something unethical. How much of a formative influence was he on Spitfire and others during their rookie years?
4810555
Or Canterlot Palace moves around a bit like Hogwarts Castle.
4810615 Shame about that Fountain Pen guy who tried to open a shop in Ponyville. Apparently he was crushed beneath a mysterious pile of sofas.
4810730 Based on their relative sizes to animals ponies look quite a bit smaller than human-sized to me.
4810807
Sure, but… “fabulous outfits?” I’d rather suspect that for ponies, noir happens in a completely imaginary universe that one pony author imagined one day which caught on as a genre start. After all, they do have books about “Alien Alicorns and Space Pirates.”
With the way pegasi would find natural employment as messengers, that would make a lot of sense.
Don’t count on it.
For Chrysalis? Easily.
They are, and he has spent days out there by the time Rainbow has arrived, so – no gauge.
4810953
Apparently Equestria has military boondoggles too.
4810953
I think that this thing are one of this supersonic gladers from "Guardians of Harmony" comics. They supposedly allow any pegasi reach supersonic speed and cause Rainboom.
Oh, and in "GoH" Cheese Sandwich have a mini-tank (although I think that we see it in his episode).
They’re cheese. The toothpicks are definitely a Sandwich Problem—the whole point of serving cheese cubes with toothpicks at a party is so nobody touches the cheese with their fingers.
The US Marines have something similar, IIRC. They still say you’re a Marine, even after a retirement or honorable discharge. You’re only an ex-Marine if you were dishonorably discharged.
4810807
Alternately, the “dragon cut” is a specific cut for these stones.
4811438
Might be something like a dragon curve, even, they have nothing to do with dragons either.